Beholder all set for Adoration Stakes

The three-time champion Beholder worked a mile at Santa Anita in 1:40 on Friday, her last major exercise before her 2016 debut in the $100,000 Adoration Stakes on May 8.

Beholder worked in company, according to trainer Richard Mandella.

“We weren’t looking for anything fancy,” he said. “There was a little bit of traffic on the first turn.”

The Grade 3 Adoration Stakes is run at 1 1/16 miles and will be Beholder’s first start since she won the Grade 1 Zenyatta Stakes last September. Mandella considers the Adoration Stakes a prep for the $400,000 Vanity Mile on June 4.

“It will set her up for her next race,” he said. “She’s in pretty good shape.”

Owned by B. Wayne Hughes, Beholder, 6, has won 15 of 20 starts and earned $4,436,600.

Royal Heroine can provide clarity

The richest race of the first week of the Santa Anita spring-summer meeting is Thursday’s $200,000 Royal Heroine Stakes for fillies and mares at a mile on turf. The race could provide a leader in a division that has lacked clarity in the last 16 months.

Since Jan. 1, 2015, there have been 16 graded stakes on turf for fillies and mares around two turns at Del Mar and Santa Anita. No horse has won more than one.

At the Santa Anita winter-spring meeting, which ran from Dec. 26 through April 10, there were four such races, and they were won by Gender Agenda, Keri Belle, Paulina’s Love, and Tuttipaesi.

Keri Belle and Paulina’s Love are among the 23 nominees for the Grade 2 Royal Heroine Stakes.